General's Highway Athletic Association of Annapolis, Rolling Knolls and Crownsville exists to instill leadership and promote the concept of teamwork among our children while ensuring all players gain confidence, build skills, play equally and have fun.

We had another great season earlier this year. First off we saw a continued increase in registrations and listed below are the numbers:

§110 Players for 2007 – 45 Clinic / 65 County

Compared to

§102 Registrants for 2006 – 38 Clinic / 64 County

Resulted in

§8% Overall Player Increase (8 Players) – 18% Clinic / 2% County

We were able to maintain the same number of teams from the year before, namely 7 teams (one each Junior and Middie, two PeeWees, and three Clinic). As expected this size of organization requires a constant flow of Coaches. For all those new Coaches (and old ones) I wish to express my thanks for stepping up to help. I also wish to thank all the parents, grandparents and guardians for helping out. This type of teamwork from the adults makes the organization stand-out.

For next season I expect to see upswing growth with an expansion to three PeeWee teams and thus we will probably require more coaching assistance. As you might have noticed this past year it is pretty straightforward and does not require special experience or skills. What it does require is a desire to help the girls grow in their love of the game without being pressured to win at all costs. That type of game play will occur later when they play in High School but today the important thing is for them to learn and enjoy the game as well as getting the chance to play in a team sport with their friends and neighbors.

With that being said the results of our organization speak for themselves. Our Junior and Middie teams are the only ones that play for ranking. Here are the highlights:

§Blue Angels Juniors team – B level team with record of 4-4-1 and participated in playoffs

§Blue Rockets Middie team – B level team with record of 7-4-0

Our Pee Wee and Clinic teams also did extremely well even though they do not play for standings. I can say though that all of our teams are winning clubs and that shows the talent and desire of the players as well as the good coaching from our staff of volunteers.

This rapid expansion and the continued need to upgrade our common equipment has had an impact on our budget. The budget report for this year is as follows:

2006 Balance Forward $ 395.34

Uniform/Goggle Payments & Registration Fees $ 9,301.00

Marketing Activities $ 164.27

Organization Dues $ 575.00

Forfeit Deposit $ 32.00

2007 Rule Books$ 37.37

Player Refunds $ 345.00

Tournament Fees $ 950.00

Clinic and County Team Fees $ 470.00

County Referee Fees $ 1,176.00

Goggle Expenses $ 756.00

Uniform Expenses $ 1,652.25

Port-o-Potty for 2 ½ Months $ 250.71

Player Trophies $ 619.05

Team Events $ 425.98

Common Equipment/Field Supplies $ 2,195.74

Other including all refunds and rebates $ 674.49

REMAINING BALANCE $ 721.46

As you may note we have been able to keep up our capital program and thus provide the our teams with superior equipment and field maintenance. We continued to contract for Port-o-Potty services this year which makes it much nicer at our home field. This will continue into the future. We also performed the field layout, striping/painting and preparation for all games played at Rolling Knolls Elementary this year and this will continue into the future. If you have ideas for other improvements please let us know. As concerns capital equipment this year marked the finish of replacing all of the old gear. We also replaced broken goalposts and worn nets. As we are still expanding we will need more equipment to the additional team. Our plan is to have two full sets of equipment for each of the County teams. This year we still only had one for Juniors and one set for one of the PeeWee teams. This will be corrected next year. We also need to continue to expand the number of goals we have.

Our plan is to try and end each year with $500 in the bank, and this past year we achieved our aim but we also did not pay for any pre-season tournaments. This coming year will see a major increase in County referee fees to achieve close to market parity. In addition, you will note from last year that we now need to spend registrations fees for our Clinic teams. With that being said this coming year we will increase our registration fee for County players by $10 to $90 and for Clinic players by $5 to $40. I said last year we would not be raising fees but it turns out I spoke too soon. This increase should work for the organization for the next few years. Comparatively we are now on average with other organizations in the County.

I wish to end by stating that I thoroughly enjoy helping the organization and welcome your continued registrations, support, assistance, and comments – whether good or bad.